Author Topic: In the bleak mid winter...Revell 1/76 Chaffee  (Read 801 times)

Wizzel

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In the bleak mid winter...Revell 1/76 Chaffee
« on: January 29, 2022, 08:31:48 PM »
Hello all,

I fancied summat quick and simple over the festive holiday to try and revitalise my plastic pledge so I picked up the 1/76 Revell (ex Matchbox) kit form our local hardware shop.  Including the little diorama base these old Matchbox kits came with, I had it assembled and painted in just over 3 days.  Then I decided not to be satisfied with the base and the quick build became a long drawn out project...

I've wanted to have a play with snow and frozen water for a while so decided to have a go at a "Battle of the Bulge" style diorama.  Apparently, there were Chaffees there but even if not, remember the old 1965 film where they used Chaffees for Shermans?  And of course it would upset the rivet counters too.  A real added bonus!

Anyway, I started with a block of that dense foam and cut it to a rough profile, chucked a bit of course turf scatter on and some various sprinkles of scatter, static grass (just dropped on, not applied with the magic machine) and decided to make some tall pine trees to go on there too.  To make the trees I started off with a coconut matting hanging basket liner cut into strips, then squares, then with the corners snipped off to make them roughly round, I pulled them apart a bit and stuck them onto a wooden barbecue skewer with spray glue.  A blast of dark brown aerosol was next, then more spray glue and some coarse foliage thrown over finished the tree top.  The trunk is a bit of balsa dowel, tapered off and scrubbed with a wire brush for the bark effect, sprayed brown and dry brushed with light grey then a hole drilled in the top to take the snipped off barbecue skewer.  Some bits of the coconut matting and small twigs were then glued in to holes drilled in the trunk for the dead branches.

The stream was a multi-stage project in itself.  First I blocked off the ends of the stream and poured in some clear cast resin with a touch of green and sand paint to give it a muddy look.  As it was drying I thought to shove some branches into it too.  Once cured, I needed to make the frozen top layer.  I dammed off the centre section with Blu-Tac, shaping the outer edges into hard, straight edges with a bit of acrylic so that when removed the inner edges of the ice would have hard, straight edges too.  I mixed more resin and into this stirred some Krycell snow powder (I'll review this product soon, once I've used it as snow) and a dash of white paint.  This was then poured either side of the Blu Tac dam.  A third slab of the ice for the centre section was poured into a foil tray.  Once this was all cured, the Blu Tac dam was removed and the edges cleaned up.  It worked much better than I thought it would have done!  I then sanded the centre slab down to the same thickness as the two end bits and cut it to profile to fit the hole, gave it a slight dry brush with green paint at the edges, laid it face down on some masking tape and smashed it up!  The plan was to then reassemble it in the gap and flood that with Vallejo still water, suitably tinted to match the water under the ice.  Schoolboy error - to set it in at various angles, some of them would need to be under the level of the set water so I had to chisel this out a bit.  An accidental by-product of this though was that I ended up with lots of bits of clear resin shavings which made perfect crushed ice to throw into the gaps between the slabs. 

The still water took a fair few applications before it filled the stream to the right level as it wasn't quite watertight where I'd chiselled the resin away but it leeched realistically into the tank track ruts on the nearside and slopped onto the ground on the far side where it would have spilled from the tank.  Pity it will be covered with snow soon!!!

I then decided the tank needed wintering up a bit and it was looking a bit on the bare side too.  I ordered a set of tank stowage items from a company called Value Gear.  I normally stay away from places with cheap sounding names like that but thought I'd take a chance and was glad I did.  There was enough for at least 4 tanks and the quality of the stuff is excellent too.  With my Krycell snow powder, I got a little pot of winter white wash cammo which went on very realistically. Once dry, it was scrubbed about a bit to show wear and then sealed in with matt varnish.  The stowage items were selected, primed and painted then glued to the tank.  They've just been given a coat of gloss varnish ready for a dark wash and picking out the details then they'll be matted over, then the antenna to go on and that'll be done - other than some snow in the wheels and over the tracks but that's for another installment, once I get to putting the snow on the ground.  Oh, I also made a canvas cover for the .50 cal on the turret out of a square of blue roll dipped in PVA bond coloured with khaki paint.  Pity to hide that brass ammo belt...but I know it's there.

Still to come are some resin GIs from Millicast which will be trudging behind the tank, then branches, bushes, ground cover, fix the trees in place and finally, the snow.  I really hope to have this done for the Feb meeting...
« Last Edit: January 29, 2022, 11:09:48 PM by Wizzel »

Wizzel

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Re: Revell 1/76 Chaffee
« Reply #1 on: January 29, 2022, 08:48:41 PM »
Pictures of the stream and ice, and the Chaffee.

chriswil42

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Re: In the bleak mid winter...Revell 1/76 Chaffee
« Reply #2 on: January 30, 2022, 10:04:36 AM »
Looking very nice Dave, especially the groundworks. Keep it up.
Chris

cph64

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Re: In the bleak mid winter...Revell 1/76 Chaffee
« Reply #3 on: February 03, 2022, 02:59:32 PM »
Coming together into a great diorama.